Our Strategic Intent A SMARTER FUTURE FOR STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY 2 CONTEXT In 2012, we launched an ambitious University Plan, created in consultation with everyone at the University. The mission was clear: to provide high quality, accessible higher education for our students. Over the past two years this mission and our values have been embedded throughout the work we have undertaken. Despite operating in a substantially more challenging environment than back in 2011 when the Plan was crafted, we are making improvement and progress in many areas. However, we are not hitting the student recruitment and retention targets we set. Indeed, we have significantly under-recruited against our overall student targets. This presents us with a substantial financial challenge that we need to address speedily. We need to re-look at our ambitions, re-think and transform the type of University we are and outline the choices we need to make to move the University forward. Strengths Our strengths are in the academic wealth of our programmes and scholarship and research and our commitment to inspirational teaching and learning; a portfolio of awards that combines academic theory with a real-world, outwardly-focussed attitude and approach; a partnership business model that enables us to perform globally; and a university community of brilliant and committed staff. We keep our promises and we must continue to deliver our promises to our students, at all levels. Understanding the Challenges However, we all also need to acknowledge that we recognise the challenges that we face and that we are ready to meet them with a transformative approach to what we will do and what we will be. The external pressures we have, through policy changes and heightened competitiveness in the sector, have been particularly difficult to meet as successfully as we would have liked. Our internal challenges have been about a long-term lack of investment in resources including the estate, student experience and in modern-day business practices. We also, as an institution, have not invested the time in defining who we are, so our distinctiveness has not been clear, resulting in awareness of us dwindling over the years. Infrastructure – We have an eclectic estate located across the region with little capital investment prior to 2012. The focus and investment with the Science Centre, whilst creating a powerhouse of STEM in the North Midlands, has meant that perhaps fundamental investments were ignored. Since 2012 we have spent a further £11m to get us fit for purpose but the on-going maintenance to be on a par with our competitors is going to be hard. We now have the medium to long term vision for our estate. Inward-facing – Successful businesses are always looking to the future. They are always horizon scanning. We need to be far more inventive and thoughtful in planning future business models, ensuring we review external intelligence - as well as our own evidence. We needed sustainable operational, financial and strategic models in our business sooner. We are now investing in our business processes but there is much more work to be done. Reputation and Ranking – Operating in a more competitive environment and living in a society that aggressively benchmarks and compares constantly (on digital platforms) has meant that there is far more scrutiny on a University’s performance. Performance in the National Student Survey and employability are now vital to decision-makers when assessing a University. We only started concentrating on our league table position two years ago. Employability and NSS are now on the top of our agenda. We have new brand messages for the University to raise our profile and regain our reputation. It is the responsibility of all of us to understand who and what we are, and to explain this to the outside world. Fragmented and Complex – Every University is an intensely complex organisation. It has its civic and academic duties to perform but with the current climate and the reduction of traditional funding streams, we now have to think long term about the financial sustainability of the business. This demands that we be modern in structure and that we are effective and efficient in our use of all our resources. We must operate as a business providing educational services and we must maximise every income source. The creation of a clear and distinctive proposition for the University will help refocus and consolidate the activity of the University. Current Performance We have started 2014/15 in a challenging position. We have had another year of reduced student numbers across all areas of the university and all types of programmes. Consequently, we need to review our expenditure for this academic year and define Staffordshire University for the future, which will demand transformative change achieved at pace. 3 THE VISION Staffordshire University is a vibrant, modern, relevant, vocationally and professionally inspired University. This will provide the framework on how we refocus and adapt the University for the future. From this vision, detailed plans will evolve and will be shared with the teams in the University over the next few weeks and months. There are three strands to this vision. • We will be the best modern university in a student city in the heart of the country Primarily based in Stoke-on-Trent, the University will have a vibrant environment that is conducive to learning and living. To be a successful city campus we need to be the right size for the community to flourish. Our future is to be a medium-sized, city-based University of at least 8,500 full time undergraduate students including more than 1,200 international students from many parts of the world, and particularly from our international education partners. In our global partnership network, we will have an impactful worldwide student population of more than 16,000 students, • We will be known for our learning and teaching and our distinct and specialised portfolio Strong learning and teaching and a distinct and specialised portfolio • We will create a responsive student- orientated business We will build upon our heritage and once again own it in the University sector providing high quality higher education that is based on teaching, scholarship and knowledge exchange that equips graduates for their futures through ensuring that they are subject experts and ready for the world of work: employable or selfemployable. We will be the best modern university in a student city in the heart of the country. We have the opportunity to create a new student city for the future. Stoke-on-Trent is the most affordable and most accessible university city in the Midlands. We have the opportunity to promote a destination in which to study; one that is shaped for today’s student and their learning and social demands. We will define more clearly our commitment to Staffordshire and beyond by ensuring our locations beyond the city are famous for specialised higher education provision, ensuring our economic impact is felt throughout the region as well as creating a global reputation. We will be the most approachable University when working with business and commercial partners. We will strive to take part in optimising the success of every business with which we work and create lifelong relationships of mutual benefit. We will continue to work hard to establish a strong stakeholder network including City, County and Borough Councils, the LEPs and Chamber of Commerce in order that our voice is heard and that our expectations are met. This is about creating a stronger and clearer University community that will enable us to deliver our mission to embrace the transformative nature of higher education for individuals and communities through the provision of high quality, accessible, higher education in today’s environment. To do this, we need to continue to guarantee that our programmes will always have current and future looking content and that they will be taught by current practitioners and critical thinking academics. So, students will truly be at the heart of all that we do. The content of these programmes need to continue to be relevant to our industrial, business and economic sectors, providing the skills that future employers demand and which are flexible to meet the needs of students and employers. Work-based learning partnerships with national and international businesses and organisations are an opportunity that we will maximise, building on our strengths. We will work harder on flexible learning models and we will constantly be exploring new ideas, new curricula, and new approaches to learning so that we remain modern and relevant. Our priority is to deliver excellence in teaching. We are already creating the culture where we deliver ‘putting students at the heart of everything we do.’ Our mantra for the student learning experience must be: Recruit and Retain, Challenge and Support, Achieve and Employ. • Recruit and Retain means the obligation to recruit students with potential who can take advantage of what we have to offer and to retain them for the duration of their programme. 4 THE VISION • Challenge and Support means the obligation to provide excellent programmes that stretch our students, delivered by critical thinking, pedagogically advanced, and scholarship and research active academics, and supported in their learning through people, and fit for purpose kit and estate. • Achieve and Employ means that we support our students to achieve the best that they can, fulfilling their potential and that we help them in their ambitions to be employed or self employed. We have clear areas of strength. We must ensure that we capitalise on them. Our areas of strength will generate our flagship programmes which will enable us to be: The leading professional and business centre in the region The powerhouse for STEM in the region Dedicated to the future health and social care workforce The driving force of the creative knowledge economy for the region Creating a responsive student-orientated business operation Delivering excellence has to be our priority. This means we need to create an infrastructure to support our well qualified, enthusiastic teaching staff and develop the culture for everyone to commit to continuous development, continual improvement and learning and teaching and to scholarship, research and knowledge exchange. Additionally, our investment priorities will continue to be student and learning: modern equipment, fit for purpose facilities and an estate that engenders excellence. This will mean that we need constantly to evolve and streamline our management structure in order that it is focused on student delivery and student performance. Our management will be delivery-focused, supportive, challenging, and encouraging of high performing teams. We need to ensure that we create an environment where everyone understands their responsibility in delivering excellence. For all of us, as well as being technically skilled and being able to inspire trust and confidence, we need to have the attitudes and behaviours to want to meet and exceed targets and be always focused on the success of our institution and our students. We will want to identify opportunities and make suggestions for continual improvement across the university, as well as being individually committed to personal improvement. We will attract students by being efficient, swift, and sales orientated in our recruitment processes. We have to use evidence and research to ensure we are able to adapt to market changes when required and ensure we embrace digital and social media channels to communicate and promote the University. We will utilise the benefits of technology, endeavour always to be efficient and effective, be business-like, focused on customer excellence, and seek for continuous improvement. Everyone at the University will be expected to use and understand business intelligence, reporting, analysis and benchmarking and to understand and operate in a digital environment. We will be bold, positive and outward looking in what we do. We want others to know what we do and to share in our achievements. 5 THE PLAN Reduce University expenditure in line with a declining student population and our current income forecasts. • In the immediate term, we need to manage our costs in line with our reduced income. As a consequence, each Faculty and Service will be required to achieve at least a 5% cost reduction in non-staffing expenditure, to be delivered in 2014/15 financial year. • Each Faculty and Service has also been tasked to achieve at least a 5% cost reduction in staffing expenditure in 14/15. In order to support Faculties and Services to achieve these targets – Only essential roles will be replaced. In this way, non-essential roles that are vacant can contribute to the financial savings needed. – Each area will also consider actively individuals who may wish to reduce hours or phase retirement, as well as managing our expenditure on additional hours and temporary members of staff. – In December we will launch a Managed Severance Scheme (Voluntary Redundancy) application process, to support Faculties and Services identify opportunities to work differently and allow staff who are considering leaving, a route to do so, whilst contributing to the financial savings required. – Some areas may also consider reorganising aspects of their structures. Introduce Organisational Change programmes in order to reduce the cost-base of the University. We have two cross-university change programmes that will deliver further savings. These will commence and be completed in 2015. 1. A streamlining of management posts. The ‘frontline’ learning and teaching roles throughout the University will be prioritised. 2. A reduction in professional support staff roles by accelerating the delivery of the Ways of Working Programme. This programme will fundamentally reshape our administrative and support services provided, embracing new technology, automation as well as ensuring consistent standards and efficiency are delivered cross-university. Undertake a a realignment of our portfolio of degree programmes and establish clear student experience benchmarking in order to future-proof the University. • Using our evidence base in the portfolio review tool, we will invest in the areas of the portfolio that deliver against our ambitions, that continue to offer a high quality student learning experience and that are in areas of our strength. • We will need to create a portfolio to support a smaller on-campus population in the immediate future. Decisions will need to be made based on us having at least 8,500 full time home and EU undergraduate students studying with us. • The product portfolio must also have the flexibility to support a broad audience including postgraduate, business, international and professional students. • There will be an introduction of robust monitoring and training and support to ensure that we improve the student experience. We need to ensure that we continue to develop all our staff so that they can respond to the changing needs of the students and the external environment. – NSS: All awards to improve results and work towards the target of 90% satisfaction and above by 2016. – We must attract students ready to take advantage of what we have to offer, as measured in the grades and range of qualifications with which they enter our programmes. – Our students will have a challenging, intellectually stimulating experience that stretches and develops them, that delivers the Staffordshire Graduate attributes, and in which they are successful as measured, in part, by the proportion of good degrees and the national student survey results. – Our graduates to be successful in getting jobs and setting up their own businesses, as measured by the DELHE data and the student business set up data. 6 THE PLAN A SMARTER UNIVERSITY Invest in the living, learning and social spaces for students in order to create a modern environment in which to study. We need to adapt and be smarter over the next 12-18 months to create a University that continues to be relevant. We have the opportunity to be an inspirational university in the heart of the country. Together we can be stronger. • In the New Year, we will present the outline of the developments and our multi-million capital commitment to create a new student community in Stoke-on-Trent as well as outlining the investment for our centres of excellence in Stafford and Shrewsbury. • The transition support and timescales of activity for students and staff will also be provided early next year. Creating a new University Plan and Strategy in order that we can plan. In 2015, we will create a strategy for the longer term future of the University ensuring we are relevant and ready for the further changes the HE sector is undergoing.
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